The First of a Few

(Note:  I began writing the following few posts well before the election and I had intended them to be up before now.  But, even though late, I still think they are relevant)

 

The following few posts have been on my mind for a couple of few weeks and is a result of this article and training at the White Rose Women's Center.

 

 

 

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Imaginary Question Posed to one of my coworkers: If Adolf Hitler was running in this election and he had the key to all the social and financial problems, would you vote for him?

"No"

"Why not?"

"Because, the guy was crazy.  He killed so many innocent people."

"Well, I know he killed people.  But what if he REALLY has the answers - not just a great plan that may work, but the actual answers. He will fix the whole issue with the market, he'll finish the war in Iraq, he'll significantly reduce poverty, he'll reduce crime, he'll make our schools better, he'll make sure everyone has health insurance, he'll ensure a comfortable retirement for all - in short, he'll will bring peace and give the American Dream to all. What do you say?"

"Well. . . I don't know.  I guess still no.  He killed so many people!  And if you made him president he would have the power to do a lot more killing if he wanted to."

"But just think.  All the people he didn't kill would be living the dream.  No more poverty!  No more people going with out healthcare!  No more homeless or hungry.  No more illiterate or people not getting into college because they can't afford it.  No more worrying about retirement.  It'd be amazing!"

"That does sound pretty good."

"But, I forgot to mention, he has stated he will still have one concentration camp in the country - only for "research purposes" though.  A random sampling of the American populous will go to the camp:  Every 7th Jew, 10th Hispanic, 20th African American, 80th Native American, every 103rd High School drop out, every 142nd woman with brown hair and blue eyes, and every 275th man that is 6'3'' in the US will be sent to the camp. Would you vote for him?"

"No way!  Dude!  If you had told me that to begin with!  Of course I'm not going to vote for him."

"Why not?"

"Because, you can't just randomly kill people! That's absurd! I don't care if he can totally fix the economy and give most people the American dream; killing people is killing people and not worth it!"

"Hmmm. Ok, fair enough. So, I guess you could say that some things are more important than others.  Like, not randomly killing people is more important than fixing the economy and making life comfortable for people. Or, to put it another way, human life is more important than economics."

"Well, yeah, I guess so. At least in that case. It's just not fair to randomly kill people, even if it means a better life for others."

 

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I've never heard any relativistic rot used when talking about Hitler.  "Well now, let's not judge.  Hitler had his views and we have ours.  We shouldn't force our views on him.  If he thinks Jews are sub-human and wants to kill them and use them for experiments, who are we to say he is wrong? Besides, we shouldn't force him to live with thousands of Jews (or Catholics or gypsies) if he doesn't want to.  That would probably make his life difficult.  And it would be imposing our views on him.  He has his rights you know."  

Absurd.  

Only the most blind and truly demented people could argue this way.

(If you haven't already, read the article I linked to above.  The author makes a similar point between slavery and abortion - which leads me to my next post.)

One Quick Take

The Gospel reading from yesterday:

Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish?Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Two things struck me as I listened to this. The first was my shock in hearing the last sentence - "how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" Why does Jesus throw this in there? He's just been saying that those who ask and seek diligently will receive. But then, like the turn at the end of a sonnet, he adds "you will receive the Holy Spirit." "But," one might say, "I wasn't asking for the Holy Spirit. I was asking for x." Father Tony explained that God does give good gifts to us - it just may not be exactly what we were asking for. And for those who are earnestly seeking, He will give the gift of the Holy Spirit to discern (or at least accept) the gift that Got is giving. The gift that is the Holy spirit is the gift of discernment, understanding, peace, gratitude.

The second thing I realized was that our current state of infertility is not a snake; it's a fish. I need eyes to see and a heart to understand - but the REALITY and TRUTH is that our not being able to conceive is a good gift from God.

(The thought of God handing me a fish makes me laugh. "Here you go - have a fish." "A fish? I didn't ask for a fish, I asked for a baby." "Yes, I know you asked for a baby, but I am giving you a fish." "hmmm, OK. A fish. Thanks. What do I do with a fish?" - I guess I'll have to figure it out :)

Quick Takes

I have this view of my blog that each and every post must be long and say something profound - therefore I don't post. So I'm taking my cue from Conversion Diary and offering short snippets:

--1--

Since I just introduced it, I'll start with the Conversion Diary blog. It is a new favorite. She is a fantastic writer and her conversion story is amazing. I would highly recommend taking some time to read through her story. Chris and I were commenting the other day on how powerful other peoples conversion stories were for us when we were considering converting and how we still so enjoy hearing them. It is so wonderful hearing how God calls other people to Himself.

--2--

I've been reading "Covenanted Happiness" by Cormac Burke. I'm not quite sure how to describe it except - AMAZING!!! It has radically changed my view and understanding of marriage and the family. It is seriously counter cultural. . . well, to clarify, the teachings of the Catholic Church are seriously counter cultural on these issues, and all Burke does is flesh out the teachings. As I read I keep thinking "I need to post on this! I want to share this with other people" but then I realize I probably would need to write a paper on it - or maybe a book - and then I realize other people have written on it much better than I ever could. But, since most of you aren't going to read through a stack of books on the topic, maybe I'll still do the post (or a series of them)

Here is the table of contents for the book - I'm only through chapter 9. The book is actually a compilation of a few different articles/presentations/essays by Burke, reorganized and edited to make a complete book. There are some chapters that cover the same or similar topics and the chapters don't always seem to be in the most logical of orders. It certainly isn't a book that needs to be read cover to cover.

The introduction and chapter 1 are a great overview of sexuality - or maleness and femaleness, "male and female He created them." (Anyone who doesn't think there is a difference between the sexes, try these sections on for size)

Chapter 2, Conjugal Love and Indissolubility, discusses why a life-long commitment to one spouse is a good thing - and increases happiness. Burke contrasts two views of man. "Secular anthropology" is based on an individualistic view of man and believes the "key to human fulfillment [is the] self: self-identification, self-assertion, self-concern..." "Individualism fosters a fundamentally self-centered approach to marriage, seeking to get from it rather than being prepared to give in it: will this - this union, this liaison, this arrangement - make me happy?" In contrast to this view, Burke offers the anthropology of personalism. "The essence of true personalism is expressed in Gaudium et Spes, no. 24: "man can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself". We can only "realize" or fulfil our self, by giving our self. . . Marriage represents the most concrete natural type of self-giving for which man and woman are made." Good stuff!

Chapter 3 is a more of an overview of marriage and family. Chapters 2 and 3 would be a GREAT reading assignment for a pre marriage class or newlyweds :)

Chapters 4 and 7 discuss children, the lack of children and contraception in marriage. WOW! Amazing! Chapter 7 is pretty philosophical and I had a hard time following all of it, but chapter 4 is great. The main point: Children are a great good in marriage - in fact, they are one of THE GOODS in marriage and should not be seen as "optional." They should be seen as one of the very good results of marriage and essential to the happiness of the spouses and family as a whole. With that said, the decision not to have children should be seen as a privation and and an exception. Having children is the norm of marriage (one of it's natural and very good ends) and only the gravest of reasons should keep a couple from pursuing/accepting the good that is children. (Did I mention counter cultural and changing my view! WOW)

Chapters 5 and 6 on divorce are fantastic. I found chapter 5 to be very powerful and another great read for a pre-marriage class (or for anyone who feels like their marriage is heading down hill or who has a friend who is considering divorce.)

Chapter 8 reiterates a lot of what is in chapter 4 and focuses on how we as a culture do not value children. Here is a long-ish quote from the chapter:

In seminars, when this matter comes up, I have at time asked my students to consider a small matter of comparative analysis. It goes something like this:

Family A: 2 Children 2 Cars 2 TVs 2 DVD The best Schools Holidays Abroad

Family B: 5 Children 1 Car 1 TV 0 DVD Second-rate Schools No Holidays Abroad

After putting this on the board, my first question to the students is: Which family has the higher standard of living? They all answer: Family A, of course. So I repeat the question: Which family has the higher standard of living? There may be the slightest hesitation, but they repeat the same answer. So I repeat the same question again, and a third, and perhaps a fourth time. Perplexity sets in, hesitations grow, until in the end someone "concedes": "well, of course, if you start considering children as part of your standard of life..."
"If you start"... It is indeed time that we started putting children down on the assets side, and not on the liabilities. On both, you say? OK; on both: like your motor car. A car is an asset and a liability. It costs money and effort and attention to acquire and to maintain: just as a child does. Your choice should begin by considering which is worth more, because to choose the other is to lower one's own standard of living [8].
"Which will give me more satisfaction?" is no doubt a utili­tarian rather than an idealistic viewpoint. Yet, even if a person wishes to apply that view to our subject, he or she would do well to consider the money and time and effort that people nowadays put into golf or computers or creative gardening, working at them, reading all about them, in search of a satisfaction they do not always get.
How come they do not think parenthood worth working at? How is it they do not study books (there are plenty available) on how to enjoy caring for one's children, on the satisfactions of being a parent? And how is it (our horizons broaden again) they do not sense the call of an utterly unique creativity, the adventure of being co-creators?

In Kenya some years ago, an African who had learned that the Western fertility rate averaged about 1.2, remarked to me: "Western couples must be very poor if they can't afford to have more than two children..." He was not a qualified "expert" in the Western sense; yet his words may be worth pondering. They could be complemented with another bit of "non-expert" wisdom, this time from the West itself. Some time back in England, I knew a recently married couple, a normal couple who wanted children. One child was born; but then there was an unwanted delay of three or four years. At last the mother became expectant again. Their first-born too was filled with expec­tations. But - a miscarriage occurred. The father had to tell the child he was not going to have that little brother or sister he wanted. "Look; Mom's not going to have that baby after all"; and, bowing before God's inscrutable ways, he added, "it's better that way..." The kid however didn't bow so easily: "But, Daddy, is there anything better than a baby?..." [7]. Computerized programs never anticipate the things that children come up with. The wisdom of children is part of the bonum prolis.

Chapter 9 is actually instruction and encouragement about educating and rearing children with strong moral values and with a well formed conscience.

(That got longer than I intended, but hopefully it whetted some appetites :)

--3--

On Tuesday after work I stopped by a local crisis pregnancy center to see about volunteering. White Rose Women's Center is located 5 minutes from my work and right next door to an abortion clinic. It is the only Catholic pregnancy center in the Dallas area and has a chapel, with the Blessed Sacrament, overlooking the entrance to the abortion clinic. Pretty neat. The visit was really a "this is what we do" introduction and actual training will begin next Tuesday. Besides offering free pregnancy testing, sonograms and counseling, the White Rose also has a large donation center of both new and used baby/child care items. The center puts together a "gift bag" for each of their clients full of the basics for a new mom as well as offers other items for those in need - like cribs, strollers etc. Their main targets are women considering abortions. The lady that gave the tour, Gerri, has been working at the center for 10+ years and is the main "on the floor" worker. From my initial 45 minutes with her she seems like an amazing woman.

--4--

Chris and I are hoping to spend a "fall day out" in a few weekends. This is our potential destination - old time Texas town!

Well, that's all I've got for now.